The Rule:Always go for the gold and surpass everyone else. Get infront of your opponents.
Example from book: 1948
Chester Bowles- elected governor of Connecticut
John Bailey- state chairman
Senator from Connecticut resigned
Bailey wanted the job but Bowles chose Benton instead
Bailey pretended that it didn’t bother him and went along being friends with Bowles
1952
New candidate had been chosen for governor
Bailey went around asking fro preferences
Abe Ribicoff was chosen over Bowles
1956
Bowles ran for the senate and lost
1959
Bailey moved with JFK to Washington to serve as chairman of the Democratic National Committee
Example from today:
John McCain
Last Wednesday, John McCain was interviewed and asked a question that caught him off guard. When asked how many houses he had, he hesitated and said “I’m not sure; I’ll have to check with my staff”. People working for Obama immediately took advantage of this and used another political strategy, spin, and had a commercial out in no time about this statement making McCain look very bad. The commercial reveals that McCain has seven houses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmFd25tRqo McCain’s people immediately shot back and made a commercial that did not make such a big dent as expected. McCain made a commercial about Obama being linked to Tony Rezko, who is now in jail, because Tony Rezko was one of Obama’s first major contributors, and speculated by the McCain campaign to be the reason why Obama could buy his million dollar house in Chicago, because it was bought right after Rezko’s contribution. Although the ad did make Obama look bad, it also was a bad move on McCain’s part because it was one house, compared to McCain’s seven, that cost 1.65 million, while McCain’s total was a much higher number of 13 million. McCain and Obama are now, ultimately, in an advertisement war. After Obama’s hard-hitting ad, McCain got even. Obama used the opportunity to spin a really good topic, and in response because McCain spun a similar topic, it could be viewed and make him look worse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC2AlWy6CI A good political technique McCain could’ve used was, rather than getting even with Obama, McCain should’ve gotten ahead of his opponent. He should’ve worked to develop things he could do for the people as president and other actions to provoke positive attention and therefore to distract from the negative attention of the ad. Dwelling on bad media attention will just further that same bad press. Getting ahead would not only make him look like the bigger person, but get him positive attention for being concerned with matters at hand.
Hardball Lesson #5: Don't Get Mad; Get Ahead
Login info: ccsark and mcgeheeThe Rule: Always go for the gold and surpass everyone else. Get infront of your opponents.
Example from book:
1948
1952
1956
1959
Example from today:
Last Wednesday, John McCain was interviewed and asked a question that caught him off guard. When asked how many houses he had, he hesitated and said “I’m not sure; I’ll have to check with my staff”. People working for Obama immediately took advantage of this and used another political strategy, spin, and had a commercial out in no time about this statement making McCain look very bad. The commercial reveals that McCain has seven houses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmFd25tRqo
McCain’s people immediately shot back and made a commercial that did not make such a big dent as expected. McCain made a commercial about Obama being linked to Tony Rezko, who is now in jail, because Tony Rezko was one of Obama’s first major contributors, and speculated by the McCain campaign to be the reason why Obama could buy his million dollar house in Chicago, because it was bought right after Rezko’s contribution. Although the ad did make Obama look bad, it also was a bad move on McCain’s part because it was one house, compared to McCain’s seven, that cost 1.65 million, while McCain’s total was a much higher number of 13 million. McCain and Obama are now, ultimately, in an advertisement war. After Obama’s hard-hitting ad, McCain got even. Obama used the opportunity to spin a really good topic, and in response because McCain spun a similar topic, it could be viewed and make him look worse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC2AlWy6CI
A good political technique McCain could’ve used was, rather than getting even with Obama, McCain should’ve gotten ahead of his opponent. He should’ve worked to develop things he could do for the people as president and other actions to provoke positive attention and therefore to distract from the negative attention of the ad. Dwelling on bad media attention will just further that same bad press. Getting ahead would not only make him look like the bigger person, but get him positive attention for being concerned with matters at hand.
Works Cited
Barack Obama. Read, Write, Now. 19 March 2008. 24 August 2008. <http://readwritenow.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/obama-
faulkner-and-race/>.
McCain, John. Dan Cheek. 21, August 2008. 24, August 2008. http://dancheek.wordpress.com/
Matthews, Chris. Hardball. New York: Free Press, 1988.